Basque Political Forces and the First Spanish Republic
The PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) was a key player during the first republic. Political nationalists, encompassing both right and left wings, were active. Early studies suggested that nationalists did not expect the traditionalists to promote the autonomy statute.
Two groups shared common political objectives, such as opposing secularism and defending regional charters (fueros). The town of Estella was chosen for an assembly where the first and second stages were carried out, involving traditionalists and Carlists who had fought in the Carlist Wars.
The Spanish provisional government could not accept this plan because the constitution had not been established, and the general political and legal framework could not be finalized until the status of the Estella project was accepted. Basque political forces opposed the republic. Parties that signed the Pact of San Sebastián advocated for a comprehensive defense of the separation between church and state, and they could not defend their Catholicism within a confederate republic or accept the project.
In December 1931, when the constitution was approved, Catalonia reclaimed its status, but there was no option for consolidating the Statute of Estella. The political goals of the nationalists and Carlists were very different: sovereignty for the nationalists, while the Carlists aimed to create problems for the secular republic.
The subsequent Management Committee decided to promote a new project, taking the existing institutions and the constitution into account to determine its characteristics. Given the PNV’s lack of interest and the Carlist position, efforts were made to bring the left wing closer to the statute, launching the process for the first time in 1932. The right wing won the elections in 1932 and remained in power until the Popular Front won in 1936.
The Restoration period (1874–1931) was dominated by the Canovist political system. Two other aspects involved peripheral bourgeois interests in foreign policy.
Basque Territories in Different Situations
The influence of Carlism was very high in rural Basque territories, where the defense of the charters was the focus of the war. The legal unification resulting from the charters’ conversion in 1840–41 opened the territory to liberal access at the end of the Second Carlist War. Consensus was impossible: while other territories had to pay taxes, resources remained in the hands of Congress. Liberal and Carlist fuerists sought the restoration of the original forum.
Impact of Industrialization
- The development of Biscayan steel and shipbuilding companies contrasted with the failure of family businesses.
- Different cultural roots and poor working conditions for immigrant workers led to community mobilization and the development of Marxist ideology, particularly in the valley.
This ideology was based on traditionalism, influenced by German romanticism, and affected language and race. Since 1898, local Basque trends coexisted:
- Radical separatist tendencies in the valley.
- Pragmatic autonomist tendencies represented by Ramón de la Sota.
The death of the valley’s ideology and the evolution of future ideological struggles between Orthodox and heterodox factions led to the creation of a more secular trend within the PNV. The complete expulsion of the orthodox faction and the clerical faction from the PNV in 1919 resulted in the party moving to the right, advocating for complete independence. In 1930, following these events, the two parties reunited under the traditional name of the PNV.